Could the Sixers Utilize the Hardship Exception?

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

With the Sixers projected to possibly start the season with four injured players on the 15-man roster (in the form of Joel Embiid, Carl Landry, Tony Wroten, and Kendall Marshall), it’s been brought up that they might possibly make use of the league’s hardship exception. For those unfamiliar, the exception would allow the Sixers to sign a 16th player to a temporary, non-guaranteed contract. For further details, let’s turn to Larry Coon’s ever-valuable NBA Salary Cap FAQ:

Teams temporarily can have four players on their Inactive List (bringing their roster size to 16) with league approval in the event of a hardship¹

It goes on to explain exactly what classifies as a hardship:

A hardship can be deemed to exist when a team has four players who are sick or injured and have missed at least three games, and will continue to be unable to play. If a hardship is granted, the hardship ends when one of the sick or injured players is physically able to resume playing. The team must then release player(s) to get back to the roster limit, although teams have the option to retain the hardship player and release a different player to get back to the limit.

The key here is the four injured players have to miss the minimum three games before the Sixers can apply for the exception. Therefore, they would have to wait to apply until after the November 2nd game against Cleveland. An independent physician, not the team’s doctor, must then determine that each of the players is still unable to play going forward. With all four of those injured Sixers coming off surgeries, there would likely be no issue in that department.

The most logical use of the exception for the Sixers would be to bring in a backup point guard. The team has stated it’s looking to keep 3 point guards on the roster, but if two of those are the injured Wroten and Marshall, it would leave the team with only 1 healthy PG to start the season. However, the Sixers have used JaKarr Sampson (“Point Karr”) as a temporary fill-in in the past, so maybe they would be comfortable using him as a back-up for three games before applying for the exception. Then, they could bring back someone from the Pierre Jackson/Scottie Wilbekin/T.J. McConnell group (assuming Isaiah Canaan would be the third PG initially kept) as the 16th man on the roster. 

Now, it’s entirely possible one of Wroten or Marshall beats their timetable and is ready at the start of the season (the team has given a broad timeline for them of the end of October). Still, given the team’s erring on the side of caution in the past when it comes to injuries, I find it more likely they are sitting out well into November. So once final cuts are made and the regular season begins, don’t be surprised if the Sixers use the hardship exception and a familiar face returns within the first couple weeks.